Ashton Bradford: Student choosing 3

     A year ago, my father and I took a trip to Atlanta to visit the aquarium there. I was always a fan of aquariums since I worked at one and visited 4 during my life, while also breeding fish in my hobby. We got to the hotel room, which was across from the aquarium, and just couldn't wait. We went to the aquarium the evening we got there and had a blast. We had got to the reef section and I felt something weird, like a calling. I was observing the corals and natural ecosystem they had in their giant reef tank and lost ability to independently think. My eyes then focused on a rose bulb anemone and I had made contact with God while watching it sway. The ocean was my passion, and from that talk with God, I now know that it was my purpose. Why did God contact me? Is this an example of Axis mundi?

    I personally believe God communicated with me because that was when I was most questioning what I wanted to do with my life. I loved fish, but I was growing to be a good engineer too. I wasn't in the best mental condition and then the aquarium made a lot of it go away, then God decided to communicate with me. It was brief, but to the point. I understand his reasoning on why he did it. I looked it up, and it seems like nobody else had this kind of experience at this aquarium. This may be a personal axis mundi, but not one that is communicated to be for sure. The aquarium is known to make people relax and look at sealife in new ways, however I could not find any accounts of anybody finding God at one. It made me question my experience at first, but I know I wasn't lying to myself, this really happened. I just accepted it as a special case for me and decided to change my life since then, becoming an Environmental science major.

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